How She Quit Engineering to Help Women Get Pregnant Naturally | Grow With Kepo Ep. 18

What if the job that once made you proud is now the thing slowly draining your soul?

In this powerful episode of Grow With Kepo, Olivia Westley, founder of Redefine Fertility, shares her remarkable transformation from mechanical engineer to functional health practitioner helping women heal their hormones and get pregnant naturally. After a devastating miscarriage and years of misalignment in her 9-5, Olivia found clarity in the chaos and turned pain into purpose. We go deep on motherhood, ego, burnout, support systems, and why your first step never needs to be perfect, it just needs to be bold.

If you're a high achiever feeling stuck or secretly suffocating in a “successful” life, this is your wake-up call.

KEY TAKEAWAYS'

• Mechanical engineering doesn't define your destiny
• Miscarriage became the catalyst for purpose
• First steps are always messy and necessary
• Fitness coaching was a stepping stone, not the endgame
• Functional health was her aligned path all along
• Support systems don’t have to understand you to back you
• Trading ego boosts for inner peace is worth it
• Building something of your own takes sacrifice and self-trust
• There’s no “right time,” only now

BEST MOMENTS

00:01:17. “She’s Olivia Westley. She’s a functional health practitioner. I’ll let her introduce herself.”
00:02:08. “I actually went to school for mechanical engineering.”
00:04:19. “That’s when I realized, like, I think I chose the wrong field.”
00:07:14. “It was just kind of going through the motions on a day to day basis.”
00:13:03. “I get sad when I don’t get to go to work.”
00:16:37. “You need support, right? So how did you navigate that?”
00:25:02. “She laughed at me for thinking that nutrition lifestyle was going to help me.”
00:37:16. “Now I just ran a live event and almost 200 people signed up.”
00:51:10. “My son ended up being born a month early. So I was taking this exam while I had a newborn.”
00:56:22. “What is life if we cannot spend it with the ones that we love the most?”
01:00:05. “There’s 37 babies here because of Redefine Fertility, which is wild.”

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Transcript

0:00

My miscarriage was called a mass miscarriage where I had no signs of it. I went in for my 12 week ultrasound. Baby didn't have a heartbeat, but that was really enough time for me to like, see what I was doing was working and obviously it didn't end the way that we wanted it to, but then it also still opened my eyes to so much more of just like gaps in fertility care, there has to be more that I can do to set my body up for a healthy pregnancy. And if I want have been going through that, I would have never seen that and I wouldn't have felt so passionately about there needing to be a better support system in the fertility space. Here is something you need to hear. You're not lazy, you're just misaligned. I'm careful. I help high performers get unstuck by taking bold, aligned action. And this is growing with Kepler, where we speak with influential trailblazers who've made their mark and found the clarity that changed their lives. This is where we get Claire realign, and move toward a life that actually feels like yours. Welcome to the show. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to this episode or to this show. And today I have a really exciting guest for you all. She's Olivia Wesley. She's a functional health practitioner. I'll let her introduce herself. Olivia is amazing. Why? Because she was you before, right? She had a 9 to 5 hour. She wasn't fulfilled in it. And fast forward to today. She is running a thriving business and she is a badass. And I cannot wait for her to hear her story, how she got here, all the fears that she conquered and all of that. Let's get into it. Hello, Olivia, welcome to the show. Hello. I'm so excited. Okay, so like you said, I am a functional health practitioner. So what I do is I help women with hormones and fertility through nutrition lifestyle. I like to call like, therapeutic practices because we're going a lot more in depth than just like, oh, just live a healthier lifestyle. Like we're being much more intentional with what we're doing on a day to day basis to really have that, like healing peace of hormones and helping women get pregnant naturally, which I got into after my own fertility journey, struggling with PCOS, struggling with miscarriages, and just seeing an overall lack of support. But like you said, I also worked a 9 to 5 job before this. I actually went to school for mechanical engineering. So that's what I did before this. And, was doing both for the time being. And then when my son was born is when I kind of took the leap to do this full time. Wow. Okay. Mechanical engineering, I don't think I knew that about. I don't think you did. Oh my gosh, I guess I studied electrical engineering. Oh did you. Yeah yeah. Oh my goodness. Good for you. Electrical engineering is a lot. Those were my hardest classes for sure. I think I had to take two electrical engineering classes. They're awful. Yeah. Yeah. It's Yeah, PTSD from from those days, but somehow I got through it. That is amazing. Dual mechanical engineering. So this is so awesome because a lot of people listening to this, they might just feel like they're stuck in this hole, like, oh, you know, I went I mean, I mean, the Stem field, I mean accounting or whatever. And look how how different the work you're doing now is like, you help women get pregnant, like, can we just like, how did you do the switcheroo? What job did you have? Like, what was each of your 9 to 5 job? Were you working as an engineer? Like, tell us about that journey. Yeah, yeah. And it's always catches people off guard when I tell them, like what I used to do to what I do now. And like, there's no connection there. And it actually like the overlap of, like, the skill set is actually more than you would think. What I did on a day to day basis, like for my job. So I went to school for mechanical engineering. I had a minor in biomedical engineering. So what I wanted to do theoretically was design, like prosthetics, medical equipment. I thought that sounded really cool. When I got to graduation, like, oh, I need to go back to school. If I actually want to do this. And I do not want to go back to school right now like I'm done. So I started out in a job in a manufacturing plant that literally, like, printed like the plastic labels to Gatorade. Like not just Gatorade, but things like Gatorade. Gatorade yogurts. They did the printing of that. I was in a manufacturing plant, typical engineering job. And that's when I realized, like, OSHA, it like, I think I chose the wrong I think I chose the wrong field. I absolutely hate this. I hate every single bit of it. I it was like the semester before I graduated, like my last semester of college is when I started posting on social media and I was seeing that like, okay, I see other people making a living doing this. So am I doing this at the same time? And like I already do at that point, I'm like, I do not want to do this forever. I want to make a living doing something. At the time, I was, working for a supplement company, like doing just thinking I was going to make it big, selling supplements. So instead you saw people were doing this online. Making it because. What do you mean by this? Just online. Like seeing people that were doing fitness coaching, health coaching, selling supplements and making a really good living doing it. And at the time, I'm hating my corporate job. I'm like, okay, I know that I don't want to do my corporate job anymore. I ended up only being there for about four months. I went to I worked for a government, like city doing GIS work. So like the online mapping sis of a mapping out like underground water lines, underground power lines. So not they. My title was GIS engineer. I didn't do a lot of actual engineering work. That was a much better place for me, but still just a lot of like dreading Monday morning. And once Monday morning hits like you're looking forward to Friday and like, I just want it to be the weekend and not actually enjoying what I was doing on a day to day basis. Like, looking back, I'm like, I didn't really realize how unfulfilled I was until now. Like, I actually woke up excited for Monday morning and like, look forward to my workdays. And like, the black and white difference is pretty, pretty wild. That's amazing. I mean, first of all, the fact that you lasted for months is actually it's actually a credit to you because people stay way too long in jobs that they're miserable in because of the stories that he told themselves. And I want us to I want you to explain to us in even more detail what it really felt like when he was so miserable. Like, what was your day to day, your week to week? What did your weekends feel like? And this is a kind of a different note to start out with. But I when you mentioned like the Stem fields and like I do feel like that's a big piece of it or it's like I had a lot of pride for what I did and like going to school for engineering, or it's like having these thoughts of like, I don't want to do this anymore. I want to kind of give up on everything. Like, I feel like that is a really big obstacle. And like a lot of what was going through my head at the time of like especially, I think the other the way that people perceive it or it's like people still reference like what I do now, like, oh, your little Instagram thing, just like seeing that where it's like you're I had this big, like, corporate job that's like. Engineering job that people really praised. And like having this idea of, like, going to do something on the internet, I feel like is a really hard thing to, like, think through at the time. But on a day to day basis, like I said, I had the two different jobs. The one I was at for four months was absolutely awful. Just the environment from just from the standpoint of, like, I was in a manufacturing plant, you we didn't see sunlight. It was just like loud machines all day. The chemical smell, like every single the people I worked with were just not very good people were. I was just that experience was just really not good. I honestly like I feel like I don't remember a lot of it. Like it was a lot of just like going through the emotions, calling my parents and tears of, I want to quit. I you can't quit. You are an adult now. You need health insurance. We love you. We support you. But you can't quit your job until you have a backup plan. And then my second job, I had actually interned there, and I had turned down a full time position, and I called them in tears. I'm like, I have you filled my position? Yeah. I really want this job. I needed to be doing something different there. Like, we actually just posted the job, so you need to apply. So that was at about that four month mark that I ended up getting my internship job. That was now a full time job back. And I was there for four years, and that was definitely a better experience where, like, I enjoyed the people I worked with. It was a very just like, laid back job. But I think that was just like, especially at the time. It was fine. It was more so like just like going through the motions, you know, whereas like it wasn't very fulfilling. It was an okay job. I knew that it was like paying me decent. I knew that, like, I knew I always had a check coming in. Like those pieces of it were good. It was pretty easy. But now I like do something that I really love. So like I think it's more now looking back on it, I see there's like, wow, like that was not a way to live life. Or it was like it was just kind of going through the motions on a day to day basis, scrolling on my phone, just killing time and, checking off the boxes versus like, actually being excited to, like, grow as a person and, like, be like, grow with my skill sets and just push myself a little bit more, you know? Wow, you you are hitting on so many important things. But very quickly, the last one that you said, which is, you know, you said it was easy, right? You are getting the paycheck on all of these things. You knew it will come in, but it wasn't easy. You're right. It wasn't easy. It actually was hard for sure. 100%. That's a wake up call that a lot of people need. And that's why I love your story. Right? Because now that you are here, now, you've done hard things to get here. No doubt. But can we just even pause here and talk about how the differences in the types of hard, you know, yeah, I that's such a great way to put it for sure. Where it's like the actual like things I had to do at the job were easy. The expectations were it was weird circumstances with management where expectations of my job were very, very low. So like logically it was easy. But you're right, it that piece of it also made it hard because there was no like looking back. I'm like, if I would have lived my the rest of my life like that of just like quite literally going through the motions and like not really being pushed, not really. There was no way to like, grow as, like like there was no way for me to, like, go into, like, different roles. Like I was the highest that I could be. There was no opportunity to earn more, to like there was no reason for me to continue to grow as a person because there was no growth opportunity in that position. And like that piece of it made my entire life hard because it's like how you do one thing is how you do everything. Or I was so stagnant at my job, or I was like, my husband even says like he was like it was it was affecting everything that you did where I was just like. It was just so like the for everything in life. Because that's how my day to day was, you know, something as you were talking, I just thought someone listening to this would think, well, yeah, that's your story. In my job, I actually feel challenged. You know, there are paths for promotion. I've recently been promoted. Maybe a year ago, two years ago, I get a bonus, but. So let me ask you this. Assuming you had all of those things in your job compared to what you have now on what you're doing now. Hey, can you compare like maybe. Yeah. You know, even though you didn't have that, I just yeah, I think that's valid too. Or it's like I do think that part of my circumstances is different than a lot of people where it's like not some other people do have that more of that growth opportunity, but I so I work in the same town. All my kids go to daycare in the same town that I used to work. So I drive by my old office every single day and it's like every single time it makes me think of just like the piece you're bringing forward of like, I didn't I didn't hate what I did, and I really like the people I worked with. Like it was fine, it was a good job, but it was like, I get so like the days that like my child care falls through or like my kids are sick or something where it's like, I feel very grateful that I have that flexibility and like, that's a whole different thing we could talk about. It was just like that difference and the two things that I do. So that was a big reason why I left my corporate job is to have the flexibility for my kids, but it's more so like I get sad when I don't get to go to work where it's like, if if I do have to stay home with my kids or get to stay home with my kids, I get really sad because, like, I look forward to so much to be able to go to work and to build something for myself. And just like I love what I do so much, and I see the bigger vision for like what I'm building or it's like every day I don't get to do that. It like, makes me sad because it's like, I want to go, go, go, go, go and keep building it. Whereas like that is a big difference for sure, where it's like it was like kind of the checking off the boxes, doing what somebody else needs you to do, just doing what you have to do versus like building something and building something that's even bigger than you, which I feel like you can relate to a lot. Yeah, totally. Because I call it golden handcuffs. Right. And it sounds it sounds great on paper. And your head gets big about this 5% bonus. And and then when you now fast forward to maybe your life now and how much you have made in your business so far and what the potential is, what you're making now. It's like really you're you're getting happy about your tiny weeny, you know, 40% tax, 5% bonus like that is what is making you happy, you know? And that leads me to the next one, something that you mentioned earlier, which is, you know, you have this engineering job. It's what people put some kind of importance on. Right? And then there's this little, this little Instagram thing and that right there, that mentality right there is killing a lot of people, is keeping them stock because their ego is getting in the way. They think that, oh, there is this, you know, engineering I'm a lawyer. I'm this is like, no, that's a no. But you are not fulfilled though, you know. Yeah, for sure, for sure. And I think that it is an ego thing where it's like, I if I think about like the reaction that people get like if I have like what I used to do when I would like, oh, what do you do? Oh, I'm an engineer. Like, oh, cool. But then now when I tell people what I do and they don't, I mean, they it's just like in passing, in conversation and I tell them like, oh, cool. And like it is not the same reaction where it's like, you do have to check your ego or it's like, I don't need them to understand and need them to approve of what I do. And even like I think that was a big I mean, it still is, but I feel like I'm in a much better place where it's like, I, I care what my family thinks, but they don't have to fully understand it for them to be able to support me and like, because my parents will always support me. They're fantastic. And even just like through this transition, they have supported me, even just like financially here and there when I've needed it. Very little. But it's been nice. Like they're there for me, but they also like, if they would have had it their way, I would not have lost my job where it's like there was definitely that little bit of disappointment factor. And that was really hard for me because like, obviously you want to make your family proud, right? Yeah, yeah. And no matter how old we get, I don't I don't care what anybody says. Like when it comes to our most loved ones, deep down we want to be accepted by them as we are or for whatever we're doing. There's just that thing, and I think it's just it's fine. It's not. It's not a bad thing. Right. And now that leads me to my next question about when you're doing this type of thing, when you're stepping outside of the green, that your entire support system acknowledges that, okay, this is the way to do life. And you step outside of that. You need support, right? So how did you navigate that? I know you said that your parents supported you. Who else was there for you because, you know, nobody is self-made, right? What kinds of support system, whether his family, friends, community, whatever it is, they should share that with us. Yeah, I say mostly my husband. He's been my biggest supporter for sure for years of me I for a while it was like affiliate marketing, marketing with a supplement company. I look back at like, very cringe. I definitely had to embarrass myself a little bit, but I look back, I'm like, thank goodness. Like, I'm so grateful for that old version of me that just did it anyways. And I made a fool of myself. But that's the reason why I'm here now. Like, I learned so much. And I mean, it was it was just kind of, me and him and I get my parents have always supported me. They've always been there. They haven't ever fully understood. I feel like they're just now starting to fully understand that, like how good I am at what I do and like there is something bigger here after five years. But my husband's really been the only one that's like from the beginning. He has. I don't know if he is fully like, it is. I don't think either of us really saw exactly what I wanted, because for a while it was like, oh, I'm going to make a lot of money selling supplements. And like for then it turned into like, oh, I want to be a fitness and health coach. And then it has transformed into like what it is now, which is now obviously more that like functional health hormones, fertility thing where he's always, seeing how badly that I wanted something different than just a 9 to 5 job and, stood by me through all of it. So I'd say him, he's definitely, like, the biggest one, for sure. And, like, so my parents have always been supportive from the standpoint of, like, they love me and they'll always support me, but they they haven't fully understood it until about now. Let's walk through your journey of the different things that you tried. Please. So what? Walk us through what was going through your mind when you first decided to try? I think the first thing you tried was the supplements, right. So the supplements on. Yeah. What were you thinking? Like what inspired you? Was it. Oh, I'm good at this or. Oh, people are just doing this, you know, just walk us through the the supplement company I worked with was first form and I still think very highly of them. I don't I don't think I was gonna ever make it big selling supplements. But I do think really highly of them as a company. I was I struggled with my weight a lot in my life and not like ever extremely but enough or I was like, I always felt very poorly about myself and about, just like the way that I looked. And I think a lot of it was just like even how I like looking back now, like knowing what I know now about, like confidence and just what it actually what it actually means to be confident or was like a lot of like it was just me not showing up for myself. Me not taking care of myself was why I felt poorly about myself. And it was me, following somebody that was into fitness, really liking her page, really looking up to her. And she was affiliated with this company. And like, I saw, like, how involved she was with this company. I'm like, oh, that's really cool. And they have a really big community aspect. And I really bought into that community piece of it. I'm like, I really want to be involved with this company. Like thinking it was going to be like years down the road. And just on a way, I'm like, I'm going to send in an application. I don't think there's any way I'll get accepted. But I'm going to send in an application. And I ended up getting accepted. It was a much easier process than I ever expected it to be. And even they have like, I don't know how familiar you are with first form, but they have their yearly summer smash, and I remember pretty distinctly like seeing them having summer smash. I'm like, one day I'm going to go there one day. And I ended up going the next summer, which like looking back at that time, I'm like, that's pretty cool. Like, it definitely wasn't as hard to get there as I like, thought it was going to be. But like, I was going for it. Like I was putting myself out there. I was posting on social media, I was meeting new people, which was like I was a very shy, reserved person where it's like, though I was making a lot of big moves for where I was at. And like, I definitely I'm thankful for that version of myself that continue to just go for it. So that was what kind of got me into it. They're a fantastic company where I learned so much, where they had so many, like, educational resources. Whereas like a lot of even what I've learned for like about functional health and like eating healthy and like the nutrition and the workout, like all of those pieces, I learned so much from them, where it's like I just gradually finally realized, like, okay, I don't think selling like, I don't think the commission from supplements is like, I don't think logically that's going to help me make a lot of money. And to like, I just it wasn't feeling aligned anymore of like, supplements are a tool in our toolbox. But like having having to make a living off of recommending supplements just wasn't feeling aligned anymore. So that's when I started to dig more into like, okay, how can I build something for myself? And like actually help make money off of helping people versus the supplements piece of it? Because that's kind of their business model, is you help people for free or sell them supplements, and that's how you make money. Genius on their end. But they were just kind of that realization of like, I need to structure this a little bit differently if I actually want to realistically make a full time income off of this. So that was kind of that transition period. And then that was around the same time I was going through my own fertility journey and, seeing the lack of support of like, like I was kind of hearing bits and pieces of like healing your hormones naturally, improving your PCOS naturally. And I was kind of like dabbling in those kinds of things. I ended up being able to get pregnant and we had a miscarriage and just kind of through that season and asking more questions of like, what can I do to be able to not be going through this? And so through that time period, my fitness coaching transitioned into more of this, like functional health and diving into that piece of it. Wow. First of all, you're so brave. Oh, you're so brave. And I commend you on that. Like, I've I've never been pregnant before, but I know people who have had miscarriages and that is not funny at all. And no, it's. Yeah. And I think it is it was for sure the hardest thing that I've ever been through. It was heartbreaking and I never understood the weight of it. I think you kind of hear of every once in a while, like somebody's having a miscarriage. And I never really I was 23, 24. I just never really registered, like how awful it is. And it was a, it was a thing where, like, we weren't trying to get pregnant at the time. I had seen the fertility. The timing of it is really just one of those things where I feel like I just truly feel like my whole journey was like happening for me, not to me, where, like I was starting to ask questions about, like my PCOS. I had been on birth control my whole life because that's all you can do for your PCOS, is what I was told. Now starting to ask more questions like, I want to come off my birth control, I want to. I've been on birth control since I've been 16 years old. Like I'm 20, 24, 23, 24. Somewhere around there, I'm like, I, I take a lot better care of myself now. Like, what are my hormones doing now? And is it asking more questions? Is us hitting a lot of dead ends of like, there's nothing you can do for your PCOS. You need to stay on birth control until you're ready for kids. And like there's just a big disconnect here. Like right off them. I'm like, there's just a big disconnect. I was doing a lot of research on my own and reading the books, listening to podcasts. I had a that's also working. My corporate job was I had it was an hour drive one way. So two hours in the car every day. I was listening to podcasts and just learning a lot. And I ended up seeing a fertility specialist because we were I was about a year out from getting married. And so I'm in this space of like, okay, so I want to do whatever I can to get pregnant and help with my PCOS. At this point, I've never had a regular cycle in my life and very just like typical PCOS symptoms. And so I saw a fertility specialist and, thinking she was going to get me more like, okay, this is what you're missing. This. These are other things you can be doing with nutrition and lifestyle to help with your PCOS. And she shut me down so fast of you will never get pregnant without fertility treatments because you're not violating. She laughed at me for thinking that nutrition lifestyle was going to help me with being able to get pregnant. And told me, you're wasting your time. Come back and see me when you're tired of trying on your own. And I left in tears. It was. I was very discouraged. I did have, like, another, like, practitioner or somebody that does very similar things. So what I do that was helping me here and there, and I texted her right away. I'm like, I feel so discouraged. She's like, I'm so sorry you had that experience. Like, I do think what we're doing is working. Like, you got to trust the process. Six weeks later, I ended up brittenham, like, pregnant. Which, like the timing of it, I was like, wow. And then that was my pregnancy. That ended up in a miscarriage. But then, like I said, it's one of those circumstances where I do feel like it's like happening for me, not to me. Or it's like the timing of like I felt so discouraged of this fertility specialist telling me I was wasting my time. Six weeks later, not a lot of time, I randomly end up pregnant. And what my miscarriage was, it's called a mass miscarriage where I had no signs of it. I went in for my 12 week ultrasound. Baby didn't have a heartbeat. But that was really enough time for me to, like. See, what I was doing was working, and obviously it didn't end the way that we wanted it to, but then it also still opened my eyes to so much more of the just like gaps in fertility care, where it's like I was right after my miscarriage. I'm like, why did this happen? What can I do to make sure I have a healthy pregnancy moving forward? And immediately it was. And now I hear this every all the time with my clients too. Like this is very like typical feedback of like miscarriages just happen. Just take your prenatal. There's nothing more you need to be doing. And that that just didn't sit right with me. I was like, there has to be more that I can do to set my body up for a healthy pregnancy. And if I want to been going through that, I would have never seen that and I wouldn't have felt so passionately about there needing to be a better support system in the fertility space. Hey, can I be real with you? Your next chapter isn't going to start itself. If you're in a job that drains you and you're tired of taking yourself out of your big ideas, it's time to move in. Raise your standards. My free 21 Day Challenge I'll coach you step by step to get through fear, make clear decisions, and start building the work and life you actually want. Click the link in the description to join the next round of up on the waitlist today. All right, now back to the conversation. When we look at what drove you to sell first form supplements versus what drove you to now, you know, build this redefine fertility business. It's so different, right? Yeah. One you were driven by okay, I really want to get out of this mindset of five. And I see this awful doing this. This sounds great. I think I can do this and you jump right in. And sometimes some people just need to jump right in. If you're listening to this, sometimes you just need to jump right in and try. You will not know unless you actually try. And I like how you said that you learned a lot from them, right? You you learn it brought you out of your shell. You had to, you know, put yourself out there a lot. But then when you go to this other window you're talking about, you somehow turned your pain into your profits, right? You've turned the mess of PCOS, infertility on behalf of that into your message. And it's so different. And it's I love the what you said about it's not happening to you. It's happening for you. So if you're listening to this, there are some things that are probably happening right now in your life and you are having this victim mentality. It will leave you. I had a victim mentality redefine for it. So this would not exist today. And that right there is a difference. Everything is happening for you. Even the first form supplement. There's a lot that you learned there. You mentioned earlier that the transferable skills from mechanical engineering to what you do now, there's actually some skills that we'll touch on that too. But I just wanted to pause right there and just help the listeners just really connect the dots. It feels so like there's a lot of pieces going on, but I feel like that also is like, like if I had to give it one piece of advice at anybody, it's like, just start like, you don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to know what it's going to look like. Like the, the like when you're talking about like, me starting to sell supplements versus like what Redefine Fertility was like the common denominator there was that I, I this whole time, I still knew that I did not want to be at a corporate job. I did not want to be having to show up at the office at 7:00 in the morning, having to clock every single hour, having to ask permission to be able to leave. I knew I didn't want that for the rest of my life, or that's the common denominator. I knew that I wanted to work for myself in some capacity. I didn't know exactly what that was going to look like. I had ideas of what I thought that was going to look like. And I just once I finally got to the fertility phase, that's when I finally felt like this is it. The whole time, like selling supplements, doing the fitness coaching. Like I was still putting in just as much effort. It just never really felt aligned, if that makes sense. Where it's like I didn't it love it. Like I love what I do now. I love the idea of having a business for myself, but like I said it and like you said, it was like, if I wouldn't have gone through those, I still won't have gotten to where I'm at now. Or it's like I had to just you just have to move. You just have to start. Like, you will figure out the details and what it looks like long term, but you can't get there unless you start. So I would have never started selling supplements. I never would have had the skill set to be able to build Redefine fertility, right. If someone is listening to this, what Olivia just said, if that's all you take from today's episode, that is going to help you tell your happiness ten x the quality of your life. Just start. That's the only way you actually get there. I love that like are we like slap that on the shirt or something. Just start. You don't have to know every single step. You just knew that okay. And like really what I was thinking about today and talking to you like that was the biggest thing where it's like that is like the biggest thing that I'm thankful for. And that made the biggest difference where it's like even with social media, like, you know, like if you're going to build a business for yourself, social media is probably going to be there in some capacity, like that's something small, like make the Instagram account, make the Instagram account and just start posting. And like what? It's not fun. I really love social media now, but from the standpoint of like figuring it out and like putting yourself out there, starting to post like that part of it, it's not really all that fun. So the sooner that you start, the sooner that you work through that uncomfy and you get better at it and it feels not so uncomfortable. Or like those are such small things where it's like, if you know that you want to build a business for yourself, like those are small things that you can do, it's just start. Absolutely. Just start. And the clarity you want will come with execution. And just like you to, when I when I tried different things in the past, I did not like social media. I to me was just this necessary evil. And the more I did it, and of course, the more I got the right kind of help and got the right kind of framework for it, the the more I realized, oh my gosh, it's not a necessary evil. I know what a time to be alive, right? In terms of yeah, like where where the time when is space where all you have to do. Also all you have to do is not like it's it's a walk in the park in the beginning. Right. But the fact that everything is literally on your phone, you don't have to, you know, invest so much. You literally just start posting. Social media accounts are free. And I was like, what am I complaining about? I literally pay zero to rich people. It's like the coolest opportunity ever. It is. And once I feel like that's that conversation of like different types of hard again, or it's like the actual task of it isn't hard, but it's like getting out of your own head. And especially if, like the ego thing or it's like you have this corporate job, you have this thing, and you don't want other people to know that you have this other thing that you actually want to be doing. And like, I mean, I had to block family members on social media, not because they were doing anything wrong, but because of like, is getting out of your own head or is like, that's the part of it that's really hard because it it's feel silly. It's people still refer to it as my little Instagram thing, and it's like I had to just check my ego of like, I don't really care that they think it's my little Instagram thing is this little Instagram thing. It's far more successful than I would have been at my corporate job, so like whatever, I don't even care anymore. But I did care for a long time. Yeah, yeah. And honestly, you know, you know what we seen in our container, right? The one that you and I are in talk about how we don't we don't care about the opinions or feedback of people we would not trade places with. All right. A lot of your little Instagram things like okay, thank you. But you are still looking to work. Are you happy? Do you have the flexibility to spend time with your children the way you want? So something comes up? Can you, you know, call the shots? No you can. So okay, you go on with your little corporate thing. Yeah. Your little w twos and fours and I will go with my little but not so little profits. Right. And I guess sometimes you just have to be like okay, well and I love where you're at now, which is, well, I don't need your permission. I don't need your approval. I know why I'm doing this right. I know why I'm doing this. And that's something that, you know, people listening to this just need to understand that you understand why you're doing it. Put your blinders on and just start all these people that have all these opinions, how have they helped you to progress in your life? I'll tell you, no way. They haven't helped you in any way. Some people are going nowhere and they want you to go with them. Right. Yeah. No. The way they've helped has helped with building the resilience of that skill set to tune them out. Yes exactly. Exactly. But yeah I know for sure where it's just like you. You can't care what other people say. No you can't. So you mentioned earlier about how you have some transferable skills. Yeah. From you know, mechanical engineering being in Stem field and even in the first form, supplements skills. Can you tell us some of those things that come to mind that, you know, now help you in your current business? Yeah, two things that come to mind, primarily just between the two of them. One is like, I, I'm very introverted, very shy, like I would in my first form days. They would have you, like, hop on phone calls with people, like, help them, just help them. And to do that, like, hop on the phone with them, talk to them about where they're at with their fitness journey or their health journey and help them. And I would literally have to have like a 30 minute pep talk with myself just to get on the call with one person. I like all that. You have to do the 30 minute, oh, I mean, it was just like a 15 minute chit chat with somebody that like, I didn't know, but I, I hated talking to people. I was especially like someone they didn't know, having to just call them in, like, lead the conversation like that was horrifying for me. Or like putting in their reps from that standpoint or like, I had a Facebook group, like going live on my Facebook group. My husband and I would be in Sunday mornings in our kitchen going, well, I've in our Facebook group, or it's like, I mean, we both were just like so nervous about it. And like those pep talks of like 15 minutes of just being so anxious and still doing it anyways, or like the reps of, like I would have never had the skill set to like, help my people. The way that I help my people now was like, now I just ran a live event and almost 200 people signed up and I think it was like 30 people came live. And that was like a woe moment for me. Or it's like, not that long ago, I was having to have these 30 minute pep talks with myself just to get talked to one person on the phone. And now I'm leading a zoom call with over 30 people, or was like, that's really freaking cool that I've pushed myself out of my comfort zone that much. And then coming back to the mechanical engineering. So obviously mechanical engineering is a lot of numbers, a lot of problem solving. Where I do work with labs a lot with my clients, where that's a piece of it, where it's like a big piece of how I get my clients answers that they're not able to get from their doctors, as I like to think of it as, like looking at their fertility like a puzzle and like, even their labs, like, your doctor will look at your labs very like black and white of like, oh, like this marker's out of range. Here's this medication or here's a supplement and like, very black and white of like, oh, nothing's out of range. You're perfectly healthy or this marker's out of range. You have high cholesterol. That's the end of the story versus when I'm looking at my client's labs. I'm looking at it as the whole story, where, like all of our systems and our body is very connected, where it's like, if your liver enzymes are elevated, your cholesterol is elevated, or it's like piecing that together of like, this is what that puzzle is actually meaning. And then even taking labs out of it where it's like I call it my fertility assessment, where I am asking about my clients day to day, like what they're eating, their habit. I'm asking them about their symptoms. Our symptoms are our body's like red flags or clues like, hey, pay attention to me. Like I'm struggling. Think of our symptoms as that. And like your doctors, don't ask about your symptoms. Or it's like, I have these all of these conversations I'm having with my clients and these things I'm digging deeper into. And I like to think of like each of those pieces as just a piece of the puzzle versus, again, that black and white approach is the typical approach to fertility, where it's like, that's where I feel like my engineering brain really thrives, where it's like putting that problem solving piece of it and looking at the data and looking at being able to piece together the data of what that actually means about their fertility. And just like the, the critical thinking, that comes with that, if that makes sense, where it's like, I just feel like that's where my, my parents of all I, I've always loved math, I've always loved numbers. And like, that's why my parents kind of encouraged engineer like, oh, you'd be great with engineering because you're good at math. You're good at problem solving. And that's where it's like the field that I got pushed into wasn't necessarily the best for me, but the skill set that, like, that's still the skill set that I'm best with is just I'm applying it a lot differently now. I love that. So what? Let's go back to the what you said about the skills that you got from first form, right? It forces you to step outside of your comfort zone. It forces you to, you know, just get comfortable with helping people and sometimes the first thing that we try when we're trying to do stuff outside of our 9 to 5 minute, will be the thing that we end up with, right? What is a stepping stone like? It helps you to do to do something. And can we just pause and just commend you on how far you've come? Like first you are doing it. That's a minute. Pep talk to Hope. So for 15 minutes. I know you know, you're doing lives with, you know, 200 people signed up and maybe I don't know, tens of people just show up at a time and you're just doing it. You're flowing. But that's because you made that decision from the very beginning to just get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Right. And then the second part is, you know, the pieces of the puzzle, like, you know, that critical thinking and all of that, that you that you got from mechanical engineering, and I love what you said about it was you had the right skill set. Just it was not in the in the right space that you were applying in it. And that is something that some people just need to come to terms with. I think that and tell me what your experience has been here. Did you have this feeling like, oh, you know, I've worked so hard in this area, in this field, how can I now just leave all of that and now go to selling supplements or go to helping people with their fertility, you know, did you feel any type of like, I think so very. This part of me or. You know what I mean? Yeah. No, for sure. I think definitely, especially while I was doing, like, the supplements and the fitness coaching, I had that feeling a lot more once I had started the fertility and, like, my functional health. Not as much just because I felt so strongly about it. And this was kind of where, like, so I, I was pregnant with my son. He was due in September. I left my job in August right before he was born. And that was kind of a big where. It's like, I just knew I couldn't do both. And it was it felt like such an easy decision for me at that point because I had found something I love so much. And just even the conversations I was having, like with my boss and with like management of like only taking X amount of time off with my baby. And I remember them having a conversation with me, he was due and he was due in October. He came a month early, but they had a conversation with me of like, you might want to, might want and might not want to take your full 12 weeks, of your FMLA because you're going into like cold and flu season. So like, you want to because I would have used up all of my, like, sick leave and vacation time within that and taken a lot of it unpaid there, like, so you won't have any sick leave left. Like what happens if your baby gets sick through the winter time and you don't have any time to take off with him? And that was like, that will always stand out to me. Of being like, this is exactly why I need to get out of here, because I cannot imagine having to like, I can't take time off with my baby because I don't have any sick leave left. Or it's like, that's probably the biggest thing that I like. I love, I love what I do, I love the business I'm creating. I love like it's so much bigger than a business to me. But like, that is the biggest thing. And I'm so grateful for where, like, my kids can be sick and a it's a couple messages to my clients of I'm so sorry, we will reschedule ASAP. Thank you for understanding versus having to like stress about sick. I mean, like the the ridiculousness of it. All right. School decided that obviously I am convinced that it is men that have stay at home wives taking care of their babies that come up with these stupid rules. 12 weeks of that's not even enough already. And then you have to start doing all this like mental gymnastics, as if you already know the future. How do I know that I need only ten sick days for the year? It's like we plan to get sick. Nobody wants to get sick, right. No it is. Yeah. And I worked for the government so it was very much so like follow that you had to follow the rules. There was no like taking an unpaid day because you don't have any time. Like it was very by the rule book. If you don't have PTO, you don't get time off. And so I guess that's where it's like there was a little bit of that or it's like I did work really hard for my engineering, but once I started actually working in the field, it was so clear to me that that is not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It just took me finding what I felt really passionate about, where it probably felt a little bit too easy. That's a part of my story, was like, I look back and laugh now because I definitely went with the burn the shifts mentality of the war going for it's now or never and it's been it was a very stressful couple of years because of that. Where it's like, what? I recommend somebody else doing that. Maybe not, but I mean, that's what got me here. So what would you change if you had to do it all over again, like assuming you knew that. Okay, redefine fertility is what you want to do, right? How how how would you have burned boats if that's if you even did it? Yeah, I probably wouldn't change anything just because of the timeline where it's like I knew I had a baby coming. I was already having a hard time juggling the two, and I knew, I knew I didn't want to do both, like try to have the side business and a full time job and a baby. So I'm not going to do that. My time with my baby is so precious and especially after having three miscarriages like I was. That time was so precious to me and I knew I didn't want to juggle both. Like if I'm honest, if I'm if I'm going to stay at my corporate job, I'm that's just going to be what I do for the rest of my life. Like, I'm not going to try to do both or I it's going to wait till a different season when my kids are grown up, and then I can revisit this, which is going to be ten years down the road. So going back, I wouldn't do anything different because I was just on a timeline and I was making, like some months, five K, some months like 2 to 3 doing. I was still kind of in the fitness coaching space. I actually was I was pregnant, very pregnant, fitness coaching and in my functional health certification, raising the clock on that, I, I was like timed up to be taking my exam like right before my son was due. My son ended up being born a month early. So I was taking this exam while I had a newborn shot up to me. I was racing the clock just in all sorts of things. Trying to make is like enough money to justify quitting my job. And that's where my husband was really great, where, like, he saw that I was making some money. It definitely wasn't enough money to probably justify leaving my job. But he kind of knew where I was at with it, where he encouraged me to leave my job. And I'm really thankful that he did, because, yeah, I won't. I wouldn't do anything different besides. Yeah, it just it was just kind of the way things had to be if this was going to be the outcome. Yeah. You wouldn't do anything different besides even pressing in and leaning in even more like, yeah, why are you leaning in a little bit more? I mean, done things differently in my business to make more money faster, to make it a little stressful. I mean, if I wouldn't have had that timeline, I would have loved to have a little bit more like in savings and more like recurring revenue and like those types of things lined up. So it wasn't as stressful of a transition. That just wasn't my circumstances, like my timeline just didn't allow for that. But you know, if like if I were to be giving someone advice on that piece of it, I definitely think that that's a better way to do about go about it, because it's been a very stressful last couple of years, for sure. My husband, my husband also quit his job around the same time. We both left our jobs to be self-employed the summer before our baby got here. That is that now has got to be tough. And what a brave husband that you have, and very understanding to knowing that he also wanted to do that. You know some people. So he owns a construction company. I don't know if I've ever mentioned that to you. Yeah. He did. Well, I didn't know that he owned it. But you told me that he's in construction. Yeah. So he. Yeah, he owns his own construction company that he left his job. He had been out for eight years to start his own construction company. The same summer that I left my job to start my own power company. When you know that, you know what stood out to me and what you just said, is, is the fact that there will never be a good time to start. Yeah, not for sure. He'll always be something he was either you were doing that certification exam while you were heavily pregnant or while you had a newborn. Like if we zoomed into that timeline, right. It's either you started now. Well, you did not have, you know, a lot of savings or whatever, and you knew that was going to be hard, or you wait a few more years of being miserable and then, you know, now you just start. Imagine you're just starting now. Actually, let's pause right to imagine if you were just starting now. Yeah. If it sounds like you wouldn't even go back, you're like, nope, I will still take the hard 100%. And that kind of coming back to that same conversation of the sooner you start, the better, the better, man. If it's an Instagram account, if is sending an email, whatever it is, just start. And even just like the hard things, they get easier the sooner I think we were just talking about that on a call. Or it's like the things that you're avoiding, the things that feel really hard, they get harder. The longer that you put them off, the longer you think about starting the business, the longer that you debate leaving your job, the harder it's going to feel like you just have to do it. Yep, I love it. I absolutely love this. Oh my gosh, this has been so good. How do you feel? How do you feel right now? Like, well, what's what's what's next for Olivia and redefine Fertility. What are the next big bold thing? Look for you because it's not just about, oh, you know, making 20 k month or something, right? It's been really fun going down memory lane for sure. And it makes me really like I just I think back to even just like when I left my job or my husband left a job like, oh yeah, we were so stupid. We're so stupid. But I'm so glad we were stupid. And I, I'm thankful for just, like, taking the leaps. And I think that's, I don't know, it's fun to be talking about that, but as far as what's next, my big jump is starting to get a little bit more time back with my kids. Just in January, I so I was up until January. My son's three, so he was up until he was about two and a half. I have been home with him full time and also I had another baby. My mom would help me out here and there. My sister in law would help me out here and there would end up being like 2 to 3 days a week of work time, but very unpredictable, which was very, very hard because it's like it's my mom. She's not she's not a she's not a daycare. Or it's like she has her own life to live to where it's like, that was really hard to have the time set aside to build a business. When that was my childcare circumstances. So in January, my kids started going to full time childcare. And since then I have spent significantly less time with them, which has been, I mean, fun to a certain extent. There's been part of it that I've really enjoyed because I just love my business that much. But I also, I miss spending as much time with them. So I've been working really hard. I actually just was talking to Maddie the other day. I just sent her a message on Friday because I've been working really hard the past two years. I'm building like a scalable business model. I was really taught that like 1 to 1, being really hands on with clients, there's only one way to run a business. And two years ago, I found out I was pregnant with my second baby. I was doing sales calls and very just like my business needed me to be hands on, to be able to make money. And I came across a different business mentor who was talking about like balancing motherhood and business scalable income. And about two years ago, I kind of burned my business to the ground and started rebuilding my offers. And I just sent a message to Maddie on Friday. I'm like, I feel like like it was a year, a year and a half of pretty much going back to zero income wise and kind of feeling like I screwed it all up because I lost so much momentum. Like I was kind of making good money. But like I said, I was very just like it needed me to be hands on all the time to continue to make money. And I kind of took this leap of faith of like, I can't run a business like this with my kids. So the past two years, I've been really building these systems and rebuilding my office suite and rebuilding these things, and I just feel like it's starting to work. And like I'm having this system set in place. I'm starting to have income hitting my bank account where it's like passive income, commission from different things, where it's like, I don't have to be able to be hands on to be able to have this money, continuing to have my bank account, more scalable office suite where it's like I can help more people and still make a decent amount of money, a good amount of money, or it's like I've worked really hard to get these systems in place, and I'm finally feeling like I'm I'm there or getting there. I'm starting to see this, like the fruits of my labor is at the saying for that. Yeah. So that that's my big move is like really finalizing. I know we've talked about my curriculum and just like finalizing all of those things and kind of putting trust in that process a little bit and trying the whole like, balance thing out. Or it's like, I would I would love to have a couple more days off with my kids and just kind of put it into cost a little bit. But Olivia, look at that though. Isn't that a gift? The fact that you will have the choice that you can make that choice, like, okay, you know, I'm going to rearrange my business so that I have more time with my children. You can now go tell your 9 to 5, boss. Yeah, yeah. It's the it's and it's I think it's easy when you're wrapped up in it to not to forget sometimes what a blessing it is. But there are a lot of times there's just like even there's like mornings where it's like, I don't get my kids to daycare until 9:00 most mornings because we can just eat breakfast together and get out the door at 8:00. At 830, instead of that was at my corporate job. We would be having to leave my house at six or so. Even little things like that where it's like, it's such a blessing, it like it. You don't get to do that. No, that is such a that is such a blessing. That is massive. And that is to me, absolutely worth it all for me. Because what is life if we cannot spend it with the ones that we love the most? Right. Yeah, even and even, you know, are coming up with that because, you know, you, you really love what you do, but then it's it's great you have this awareness of, okay, I still want to spend time with my babies as they're growing, you know, because before you know me there. Yeah. What do I think it's going to be? It's challenge in itself because I do love what I do so much. So when you ask, like what my next big move is like, it does feel like a big move and kind of a challenge because I do love what I do, or it's going to be a bigger moment is going to be a battle for me too. Or it's like kind of checking myself of like, my kids won't be young forever and like getting my business to a place where it's like, it's a it's a big business. My movement is building for me, and it's still working for me, but like, it's okay if we aren't, like, foot on the gas pedal, full force to take in some of these precious universes. Yeah, yeah. No, I love that. And what what a life is like. Oh, this is a high quality problem. Like, oh, you know, right now I build the I go ham on my business or do I carve out more time with my babies? Right? I love it, I love it. What a beautiful problem. It's a beautiful problem. This is so beautiful. How do you show your stats? And you can share it? Like how many women have hopes to get pregnant? I think we're at 37 babies now. Wow, that's so cool. So so amazing. The. That is so amazing, right? Yeah. And it's something again, I'm not very good at celebrating myself. Or Maddie's had to check me a couple times or it's like in my head I'm like, but it's only 37. It's not 137, but it's like there's 37 babies here because I've redefined fertility, which is wild. That is wild. I mean, only 37 can we cast our minds back to maybe how happy and how it changed your world when you had your first baby. That's one egg. And imagine, like 37 babies. Come on. That's actually my wedding that I was at this weekend. It's for my best friend. She had referred her cousin to me. So the ring bearer in the wedding was, a baby that was born because of, redefined fertility. And, like, the whole weekend, I'm just staring and I'm like, oh, my God, that just was my arc. Did he believe that? But it was it was definitely a cool experience. Seeing him in person was like, that's wild. Like you wouldn't be here while that is that's just saying, that's awesome. Olivia, tell us anyone who is listening for some reason, maybe they want to work with you. Just tell us, you know, how do we reach you? What are the things that you offer? And now you said you just, you know, created your offer suite or rejigged it. So if somebody was to work with you, how did they reach you? Yeah. My Instagram is usually the best place to get Ahold of me. I love Instagram because you can send voice notes. Versus like email. I feel like email is a little bit harder to connect with people and get to know people. And especially with a fertility journey, like, I take a lot of pride in getting to know my clients and like looking at you as an individual and like your story versus you being another patient in and out of an office, is really what I've built my business off of, because I know what it feels like to be just another patient in and out of the office. So Instagram is the best way to get a hold of me. I, like I said, I did rebuild my offer suite where it's like I wasn't fully intentional. It was just being very, like, intentional about creating something for somebody, like at every stage of their offer. So I do have an offer for really to meet you with, where you're at on your fertility journey, where like, maybe you are just kind of starting to research, like, how do I eat healthy? How do I actually there's a lot of contradicting information on the internet of like diets, fertility diets, fertility supplements, where it's like breaking through the nodes of like, this is actually what you need to do to improve your fertility naturally through your nutrition and lifestyle. I call that fueling Your Fertility is, my program and just kind of like how I reference it, because we are fueling your body to set your body up for a healthy pregnancy. That's kind of where we start. And then I have multiple options as far as, like, getting hands on support, getting labs. I run, like, either just like a blood panel with clients or like, what's called functional algebra and, and gut testing, toxin testing. And again, it kind of meeting you with where you're at, where some people don't need as in-depth support end up thinking it just kind of depends on where you're at. So that's kind of like a gist of how I help my clients. And like I said, I have really built it to be like meeting you with where you're at on your fertility journey. So there's something for everybody. I love it. And your Instagram handle is Redefine Fertility, right? Yes, that is it. Okay. We'll also put it in the link in the description as well. So this was really, really good. I feel having me this is so much fun. Yeah I really I really enjoyed this. And I learned so much as well as usual. Sometimes I say these things are just for me to learn on other people. I just need. Yeah. And so I'm, like, hearing other people's stories, and it's just the I feel like the kind of gist of it is like it's. Yeah, I feel like when you hear more people stories, they can they really just kind of like, it's possible for you to write. Like, if it's possible for me, it's possible for you too. But you do just have to go for it because it's never going to be easy. I love it, I love it. What what what a way to end this. You're so you're so awesome, Olivia. And I just commend you. You you're going for it. And I love how at the same time, you're not losing sight of what it is that is most important to you, right? Yes. Your passion about your business. We are like, oh, I don't want to miss this precious moments with my babies. And I see you in the fight. I see you doing it, showing up even when you're tired. When you're not tired, you just doing it. And I just want to commend you for that. And I cannot wait to see, you know, where you go with redefined fertility and what you do with it. So yeah. Well, I am absolutely every time you have made me. This has been so much fun. Of course, if you keep going, your work is so important and is so precious and so special, like, oh thank you. Yeah. And like I said, I appreciate you having me on this. This is so much fun. Yay! Thanks for tuning in to Grow with Keppel. If this episode sparked something for you, subscribe, share it with a friend and keep growing.